Weekly Report for Week Ending February 21, 2002

The LIGO Executive Committee Agenda for Monday  February 25, 2002 will be:

 (Meeting time: 10:30 am Pacific Time)

Open meeting 10:30 - 11:30

1. Announcements
2. LSC Issues (Weiss)
3. Comments on Weekly Report
4. WBS 1 LIGO I Construction (Lindquist)
• Field Change Orders/Contingency Liens/Change Requests
5. WBS 2 LIGO Lab Operations
• Administration (Lindquist)
• Sites (Raab, Coles, Shoemaker, Sanders)
• Detector (Whitcomb, Coyne)
• Campus Research Facilities (Weinstein (40 Meter), Libbrecht (TNI), Zucker(LASTI))
• Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)
6. WBS 3 and 4  Advanced R&D and LIGO II (Sanders)

Special Items:

Special Announcements:

Weekly Report Highlights
 

LSC Issues (Weiss)

no report

LIGO I Construction/LIGO Laboratory Administration (Lindquist)

LIGO Operations--Administration

A Site Teleconference was held on Thursday, Frebruary 21, 2002.  Discussion included the status of FY 2002 costs-to-date, of NSF funding and the Cooperative Agreement, the establishment and budgeting of FY 2002 accounts, the FY 2002 Financial Reporting format, as well as the status of the construction at the two sites.

• A review of the new building at Livingston reveals that the outside finish is not good.  The interior looks good except for the hanging of doors.  It appears that the auditorium has been finished to a state where with a few hours for cleaning it could be used for the LSC meeting now.  Seat spacing may be close--Otto to consider what could/should be done to improve spacing for Hanford.  Current plan is to replace LDAS computers at sites--should be scheduled after science run.
• At Hanford, steel is being delivered and installed.
• Installation of the Livingston Laser Safety System is complete.  A safety audit has not yet been scheduled but will be sometime in May.

From: Ed Chargois <chargois_e@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Assisted the Dector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of some optical substrates to Stanford University (Dr. R.Route) via Federal Express, delivery confirmed.  Account Number 157746.
• Prepared and submitted Standard Form 122 to the National Science Foundation (Kevin Rorer) for approval to acquire office furniture from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Kansas City, MO.  The original acquisition cost of the furniture is $25,150.  LIGO cost will be only for transportation from Kansas City, MO to Livingston, LA.
• Assisted the Detector Group (H. Armandula) with packing and shipping of six (6) Substrates (Flat), serial numbers 5583, 5701, 5654, 5572, 5567, 5728, and three (3) Substrates (Curves) serial numbers 0687, 0689, and 0693 to MLD Technologies (Don Curry), Eugene, OR.  Account Number P157746.

>From: Linda Turner - turner@ligo.caltech.edu>

Web pages for the DCC give simple how-to's for document numbering, easy access to the latest on-line documents, and search capabilities for the DCC database. Take a look. . .

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Reworked several forms and listings for upcoming policy manual and orientation processing.
• Continued work with  "gang of five" to create a LIGO policy manual and orientation process for new hires.
• Met with Thomas and Rita to ensure that necessary information is sent to them as it pertains to the orientation process being worked by the "gang of five."
• Began compiling list of vendors to see at upcoming AIIM conference and finalized the nearly 20 classes to attend while there.
• Worked on proposal for revamping current DCC processing.
• Researched several fax options for switching from hard copy to electronic transmittals.
• Working on several problem documents electronically submitted to the DCC.  Many of them involve numbering inconsistencies, revision discrepancies, and other such difficulties.  Reminder to LIGO staff:  Please make sure that as a minimum, each document submitted has a LIGO number, author's name, and date.  It's surprising how many documents are missing one of more of these essential pieces of information!.

ACTIVITY

• A fairly busy week for electronic document processing.  Spent time sorting through numerous document submissions that had problems.
• Progress continues on conversion of old financial reports to electronic form.
 

02/21/02	Packages	Faxes
In	33	31
Out	05	48

From: Esther Cunningham <esther@ligo.caltech.edu>

Press here for ACCOUNTS PAYABLE HISTORY DATA .

From: "Brambila, Ruth" <Ruth.Brambila@caltech.edu>

• Completed change order #5 to Yakama, change order #7 to Newark Electronics, change order #103 to Triad, change order #3 to GP Manufacturing, change order #16 to Support Services, and set up two new contracts:  EGO and Landscape Horizons.
• Transferred funds from Fy2001 to Fy2002 accounts on Demco and GP Manufacturing.
• Working on change order #1 for the AV presentation system for LLO.

• Worked on Visitor Program report as of January 2002.
• Started working on monthly reports for February 2002.

• Financial reports can be found at: http://docuserv.ligo.caltech.edu/~fireport

From: irena@ligo.caltech.edu (Irena Petrac)

• MLD: An administative Change Order (No. 03) was processed to allow payment (as a separate item) for 'NRE and Fixturing' that is needed in support of the optics coating R&D.
• NYMA/FDC: Change Order No. 30, adding FY'02 funds, was processed to Purchasing.
• EGO: The first installment of LIGO's cost share, in support of the joint LIGO/EGO optics coating R&D program, was authorized.
• CRDF: Change Order No. 09, adding funds to cover purchase of materials in support of LIGO research at the Moscow  State University, was released to Purchasing.

CONSTRUCTION:

• Selection of all alternates for the audio/visual equipment for the LLO Staging Building has been completed and forwarded to the contractor, American Electronics.
• Auditorium seats have been installed in the LLO Staging Building auditorium.
• The steel for the LHO OSB East Building has arrived on site.

• The laser safety interlock system at LLO has been completely installed and tested.  Access cards are being distributed, with training scheduled to take place next week.

SUPPORT (Baldon, Torres, Lloyd, Tischler)

• Processed the paper work for new/revised trip.  I have thirteen (13) trips in various stages of completion before ticketing can be done and paper work completed.
• Completed six (6) Expense Reports and there are three (3) reports yet to be done.  I'm not holding any reports requiring checks to close at this time.  I still have one (1) 2001 trip outstanding.  The report has been completed but has not been signed and return by the traveler.
• Reconciled P-Card items which required telephoning vendors to track down which traveler incurred which charge.
• Worked with Montrose Travel clarifying their questions as well as who they can expect to using my P-Card as opposed to their own, who will be doing the travel for the sites, and who's card will be charged other than the traveler.  They are now set up to do all of LIGO's travel and have started ticketing.  As questions arise they will be addressed.  Worked with their Accounting Manager to have me added to their User List so that I can access their LIGO travel reports.  She thoroughly explained the reports, how read them and even how to customize them for LIGO.
• Worked on the preparation and distribution of the Travel/Vacation Itinerary for February 21, 2002.  Performed normal recording and filing associated with Travel and Reimbursement.  Also performed miscellaneous duties as requested by various members of  the LIGO Project here at Caltech as well as from members of the staffs of each of the two (2) sites.
• I continue to do MIT's travel to the sites for installation activities and also to assist them wherever possible.

• Ruth, Gina and I continue to transfer contracts, blankets and POs to FY02 POETAs.
• Esther and I processed 61 invoices for payment this reporting period (total incoming invoices received for this period can be seen in  "Cost Schedule Control Systems" report by Esther Cunningham). I tracked and followed up on some invoice problems and reviewed and recorded payments processed by Esther the week of February 11.
• Processed the usual requisitions, change orders, etc.
• Continue to monitor contract and blanket order encumbrance and notify task managers when supplements are needed.
• Worked on updating PO log books.
• Jim began working full time on data entry and updating files in my office this reporting period. He will resume his schedule of working for the DCC in the mornings and me in the afternoons on March 4.

(For weeks ending 2/13 & 2/20)

• Scanned various LSC documents and updated the roster with their respective Attachments Z, then submitted to the DCC:  MSURG annual report, Stanford, IAP (Russia), Univ. of Oregon, Goddard, and NAOJ-TAMA.
• Verified proper numbering of some documents, followed up on others so that they are accessible to V. Kondrashov.
• Did final edits to the 40-meter Safety Audit report, then distributed.
• Lots of Pcard activity this period.  Most orders were for parts going into the hydraulic pump station.  In one case the item exceeded my limit of $5k, so a requisition and justification were prepared and submitted to Purchasing.  Made several calls to Home Depot to straighten out delivery of the order, then more calls to address the subsequent billing issue.
• Prepared a letter to accompany items being FedExed to Italy.  Placed several calls to a vendor to obtain status of delivery of a sample.  Spent time chasing after paperwork so that I could properly reconcile, did 37 this period.
• Met with R. Tischler and C. Akutagawa to discuss various administrative procedures, including the procedures for telecons.
• Arranged a telecon for G. Sanders.  Updated site trips.

• LIGO Roster.  Since 2/8/02 some minor changes have been made, and the name of Nobuyuki Kanda was added.  Any changes or corrections to the roster should be sent to torres_r@ligo.caltech.edu.
• Office supplies.  There is a blanket order with Viking Office Products, their catalog is available in several locations throughout our offices.  Ligoites may take advantage of the order by submitting their requests to: Irene Baldon, Ryan Tischler, or Rita Torres.

• Meeting with Rita Torres to discuss how to set up telecons and work with Viking blanket order.  I will be a secondary contact/support should the need arise.
• Reconciled p-card.

Advanced LIGO (Frey)

Progress Period from 02.15 to 02.21

Accomplishments:

• Weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting was not held this week.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority)
• Continuing the development of the Cost Estimate.  Prepared second round of SUS, IO, AOS, and COC estimate analysis on a suspension by suspension basis for the purpose of determining how LIGO Lab can apply monies proposed by GEO.  This was done at the direction of Dennis Coyne.  Second meeting was held with GEO on Tuesday at 10am at Gary's office.
• Continue to pursue all other sub system schedules.
• Updated web site with latest data.
• The following is a summary of status by sub system:
• COC - Work on action items per second review continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• PSL - Finished inputting changes to the cost book and schedule.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• AOS - Work on action items continues.  Inputting / reviewing data provided by David S.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• IO -  Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• SUS - Working with SUS group to incorporate current comments.  Followed up with Janeen and David Reitze regarding the scope and configuration of the Faraday suspension.
• SEI - Work on action items continues.  Next meeting date has not been scheduled.
• ISC - Continue to review data.
• All other subsystems have yet to be scheduled for their first review.  These dates are pending per direction from Gary Sanders and Dennis Coyne.
• Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Followed up with Eric Black regarding the re-work of the TNI plan per result of the review meeting held on 02.07.02.  Revised plan is pending input from David Shoemaker.
• Did not update the plan this cycle because no data was provided and pending re-baseline effort.
• Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 02.15.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 03.01.02.
• Project Plan for the 40-Meter Lab Upgrade continues.
• Updated the plan with progress as of 02.15.02 and  posted to site.
• Sent out update data requests for progress as of 03.01.02.
• Initiated budget discussions between Florence and Alan for FY2002.
• Continue to test the Cost Book Tool.
• ROSTER DATABASE:
• Continued work on procedures for data gathering.
• Scheduled and executed a meeting with Linda Turner regarding the incorporation of the roster data collection in to the employee orientation process.
• Followed up with BK and answered her questions regarding ongoing action items.
• COST BOOK DATABASE:
• Continue review of changes and updates to procedures / online help.
• Mapping and formatting of OPS cost data for input on hold pending finalization of co-operative agreement.
• DCAA - No work this week and awaiting further instructions.
• Development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guidebook continues.
• Project Web Site for posting schedule and progress related data continues to be updated with the latest and greatest.
• See http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~tfrey/index.html

• Next weekly Advanced LIGO Project Controls meeting to be scheduled.
• Advanced LIGO MRE Proposal (Highest Priority Task)
• Highest priority is the development of the Cost Estimate.
• Will continue to pursue all other sub system schedules.
• PSL - Will complete estimate and schedule changes.
• AOS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD. (New data from David to be input).
• IO - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• SUS - Continue inputting changes to and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• SEI - Continue inputting changes and prepare for next meeting TBD.
• COC - Work on action items by Garilynn continues.  Anticipate schedule changes prior to next meeting TBD.
• ISC - Finish review of data.  Input data and change WBS as requested.
• Will issue updated meeting minutes for every subsystem as action items from most recent review are completed.
• Will Continue to update the TNI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.01.02 and  post to site by the 6th.
• Will Continue to update the LASTI Schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.01.02 and  post to site by the 6th.
• Will continue updating the 40 meter schedule and incorporate any changes.
• Will update the plan with progress as of 03.01.02 and  post to site by the 6th.
• Roster Database
• Will continue work on actions items.
Cost Book Tool development continues.  (Highest Priority Task)
• Will continue ops cost data input when available.
• Will continue to work with BK importing data and executing action items.
• Will continue to provide support to PL for DCAA audit.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Web Site.
• Will continue the development of the Advanced LIGO Project Controls Guide Book.

We are doing a standard Annual Report for the Construction Project as of the end of November.  The final draft has been distributed and some comments received.  We will be sending to the NSF shortly.

The following change request has been submitted:
 

In addition, Gerry Stapfer is preparing a change request (CR-020001) for cost increases incurred on the HPD contract.  We have tentatively scheduled a meeting of the LIGO Change Control Board for 11 am PST, Tuesday, February 26, 2002.

Press for the latest Contingency Needs Projection.

From: Cindy Akutagawa <cindy@ligo.caltech.edu>

• Took care of miscellaneous accounting details, attended several meetings related with HR duties, various personnel/payroll /HR related work.

 

 

THIS IS SOMETHING TO NOTE, the website with voice mail tips:

http://www.atc.caltech.edu/Telecom/vmail.htm  (Click on Intuity Voice Mail tips.)

Quality/Safety (Tyler)

The first phase (funded by PMA) of the modifications to room 215 Synchrotron for the LDAS fire suppression system installation is well underway.  As of today (Thursday, 21 February), the elevator door and frame have been removed and the opening rough framed in.  The new electrical work is also in progress and most of the old floor tile has been "lifted."  A plastic wall and doorway have been installed to isolate the construction area.  Next week the HVAC modification work and raised floor extension work is scheduled to start.
 

LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) Operations (Raab)

no report

LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) Operations (Coles)

CDS: We got the prestabilized laser data acquisition channels straightened out. There were many channels that had been misdirected or that had been removed, and these have all been restored to their proper configuration. Details are in the e-log. Completed the semi-annual electronic test equipment inventory. Out of 109 pieces, we are chasing down 7. A list of those items w/descriptions, serial #'s and G #'s has been distributed.
Did some troubleshooting of QPDY signals (both hardware and software). All  the channels work correctly - we were unable to repeat the quad 1 problem that was observed. Fixed the common mode over ride switch for the LSC. A connector was twisted and shorted the input to the Xycom 220. Testing is being done to try and relieve noise generated by the cooling fans on the suspension controllers. We should have a solution in the next few days. Completed the wiring of the new 1X6 (SOS digital suspension). Both of the new suspension racks will be put into storage awaiting seismic isolation or the Saints winning the Super Bowl. (Rus Wooley)

Worked on getting back the CDS disk-to-disk backups working. The backups were affected by the new security measure installed after the OS upgrade. Downloaded and configured new medm screens for QPDX and QPDY whitening board. Bought additional licenses and DSP Blockset for MATLAB and installed them on CDS. Working on writing programs for testing of the penteks and xycom 220 DO cards. Upgraded some more CDs systems to Solaris 8. (Chethan)

LDAS: Configured a test federated database 'sample1' on sunbox1 that uses tables from metaserver's 'LDAS_TST', 'LLO_1', 'LLO_2' database, from linuxbox1's 'sample' and from local 'sample' database. Tested that one can really execute joins on tables from different databases, create views that are union of similar tables from different local or remote databases. Helped Erik Katsouvanidis to figure out how to extract data from metadatabase using a script instead of guild (Erik was unhappy that guild has 10000 row
restriction, he wanted to get all the data for E7 from some tables).  (Igor Yakushin)

IFO: Analyzed the motion of MC mirrors. Coherences between MC transmitted power, MC length control, MC1-MC3 OSEM sensors shows that near 1.6 Hz MC trans power has low coherence with MC length control but high coherence with MC1 and MC3 sensor. HAM stack has a peak near 1.6 Hz. This indicates that possibly MC1 and MC3 move at the same time without changing the MC length (because of the curvature of MC2). (Sany)

Optics and Installation: Looks like the Laser Safety Interlock is about ready to enable, began working with the installer to learn the software and issue user cards. Built a test rig for Gaby to characterize the WF sensors. Scanned the IFO beam at several positions on ISCT4 (the darkport) searching for clipping/apodizing. Preparing support material to float a BSC leg so that Joe Giaime can measure its transfer function. (Jonathan Kern)

IOT and ISCT tables have been photograghed and posted in the e-log. Harry, Jonathan, and I removed the shaker from BSC3 SW pier. (Gary Traylor)

Emlyn Hughes, the new chair of Caltecch's LIGO Oversight Committee, visited LLO this week and had the opportunity to meet many LIGO staff and local collaborators during his visit.
 

Detector/Technical Support (Whitcomb, Coyne)

DETECTOR

See also the daily electronic logs for the installation and commissioning activities:
Hanford Detector Log
Livingston Detector Log

1.1 LHO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

2km Commissioning

When the 2km was returned to locking it did so with a vengeance, having a record setting 14 hour 45 minute locked stretch, with 5 W input to the modecleaner and with the common mode servo running.  During the week we continued to work on the ASC system, testing WFS2, 3, and 4, and owrking with the WFS1 servo.  The dewhitening filters on the ASC controls to ETMX and ETMY were engaged, but with no immediate improvement to the interferoometer noise.

Bill Kells made an important set of measurements, looking at the scattered light from the 2 km arm cavity mirrors when the inteferometer was in lock.  He saw a clear signal that correlated well with the power stored in the arms.  Both ETMs had similar scattering levels, but the measured scatter from ITMY was several  times larger than for ITMX.  If this result holds up to further scutiny it could indicate the reason for the poorer than expected recycling factor in the 2 km interferometer.

4 km Commissioning

Bill Kells made a quick repeat of the scattering measurements for the ITMs on the 4 km; the data are preliminary but they appear to be similar to each other.

1.2LLO INSTALLATION & COMMISSIONING

4 km Commissioning

We have been trying to bring the antisymmetric wavefront sensor into operation and find large variations in the response of the different quadrants of the photodetector when illuminated by the interferometer light that is supposed to be free of wavefront shear or the admixture of higher spatial modes. The electronics is balanced and we are beginning to suspect the relay optics.

Work has begun on reducing the coupling of test mass angular motion to the longitudinal fringe signal. Initial efforts are directed toward finding the beamspot locations on the mirrors that are only second order sensitive to phase change with rotation.

Preparations are underway to measure the transfer function of the isolation stacks via the interferometer output. The dynamical impedence of the isolation system support pillars is also being measured. Both efforts are needed to support the design of the seismic retrofit at Livingston.

Impulses in the amplitude of the laser light after the premode cleaner in the pre stablized laser system were noticed during the E7 run and are a noticeable component of the non-Gaussian noise in the output of the interferometer. Work has begun on establishing the source of these pulses.

PSL

2.0 OtherEngineering and Scientific Activities

2.1 Design/Analysis/Fab

Seismic Retrofit Project

Pre-isolator
Pier testing at LASTI indicates that the first pier resonance is ~25 Hz and is a pier bending mode. The pier was disconnected from the cross-beam and loaded with spacers for the coarse & fine actuators. This has been repeated on 2 piers. This is markedly different from the original tests done by Joshua; The initial tests were done shortly after the grout was set at the pier base and this may have been responsible for more compliance at the base. A repeat of this pier reaction compliance test will be performed at LLO soon. Then the instrumentation will be used to do more complete stack transfer function characterization than was done by Hytec on the BSC prototype.

Made a decision to procure the Kaman DIT-5200 inductive position sensors instead of the MicroEpsilon sensors because their noise floor is lower. Also plan to use the 1Hz L4C geophones instead of the originally planned 2Hz geophones for better low frequency noise performance. (However, see comment below under hydraulic actuator.)

Hydraulic Actuator
Testing with a modified nozzle (.012" radius, .002 chamfer) in the DYP2S valve body showed a turbulence onset at Reynolds number of Re = 6.5 to 8.5 with considerable dependence on supply pressure. Received the newly machined nozzles with a much larger flat end (not just modifications of the existing nozzle). Stanford has been unable to cause a transition to turbulence in their valve test stand with these new nozzles. Since the laminar - turbulent transition shows considerable hysteresis, they will have to modify their test stand to get higher Reynolds numbers in order to insure that we will not have problems in the LIGO application.

Most of the bellows internal volume is filled with an aluminum cylinder. Corwin (Stanford) foudn that he could use this space to mount the larger L4C geophone and could then fit the Kaman inductive sensor as well with no changes to the balance of the hydraulic actuator. However, Stanford now thinks that the lower than expected bellows resonance is due to the fluid compressibility and the resonance can be pushed higher if we reduce the size of the cylindrical plug, which now is also used to house the geophone. A test is under way to see if this theory is correct. If so, we have another round of optimization before we know how to incorpoaret the chosen geophone & inductive sensor.

SEI Hydraulic Pump Station (Ken Mailand)

CONSTRUCTION: Materials and Components are arriving for the assembly of the test pump station. Assembly has started.

WORK SPACE: CES work space is finished, power etc. is in.

LAYOUT DRAWING: I have started a layout drawing of the location of the components on the granite base, and configuration of the plumbing.

MANIFOLDS: Station noise filter1, and test load 1 &2 have not been started yet.

LONG TUBE RUN: Design of a method to assemble, support and isolate the 360 foot tubing run  is in progress.  Test taps at the 60 foot mark [shortest run] and 180 foot mark.

Additional parts and hardware have to be located and ordered. Final word on the accumulator, resistor configuration, and test load requirement from the Stanford group is hoped for soon, final layout and parts purchase require these components be defined.

Internal Active Damping
A HAM-like stack is being set up in Lauritsen Lab in air for prototype testing using spare constrained layer damped springs and spring seats. All materials for the stack have been received.
Drawings for the mounting arrangement of the system have been completed and will be reviewed to insure that the dimensions are correct and that a viable method of installation is known. Fabrication in Italy should start soon. Fabrciation for the LVDT and voice coil parts has already begun.
A D-space system has been ordered for use in prototype testing on the HAM-like stack.
Ordered boards (LVDT and coil drivers) for CDS stuffing.

Rich Abbott

• Rich has been working on the requirements for the hydraulic pump servo electronics for the seismic retrofit.
• Have been coordinating efforts on the layout of a six channel voice coil driver system for contingency use in the seismic retrofit.
• Ordered boards (LVDT and coil drivers) for Riccardo's seismic retrofit proposal.
• Did final check of +/- 10 amp driver prior to sending it to MIT, but we damaged the power driver while checking all the protection features and have had to order a new op amp from Apex.

Optical Modeling

The slides and the abstract of the seminar can be watched on the E2E web page.

Optics Fabrication and Testing

Contamination Cavity # 1 is in progress.  We'll follow the same procedure as cavity #2 but in this case we'll use the broadband EOM  Pockel Cell instead of the resonator EOM .  hopefully,  We'll lock the cavity.

Other task has been performed as placing orders, looking into a new RF Photodiode needed for the Contamination Cavities. I have sent (3) Model SRS 560 Pre-amplifiers to have them repaired.  The front end has been blown out and it is always overload as one turns it on.

PSL

The new version of the laser slow loop has been written and tested on the IOC processor in the PSL Lab.  The code now implements a PID algorithm to control the SLOW actuator.  Implementation of the state code will require a few additions to the EPICS records database.  The code has been tested on the IOC in the PSL Lab for the past 3 days, without any detrimental effects.

Flavio Nocera
Flavio has contacted Rita and she is helping him get a handle on the status of parts in the PSL.

40 m Bake Ovens

LSC/ASC

• Rich took data on the noise and transfer function characteristics of the SSM2018 variable gain amplifier as a candidate for the MC servo VGA in the length path.
• Requirements for the variable delay board have been checked and PCB layout is in progress.  Parts are on order for the next batch of boards.
• Flavio has been handling the manufacture of additional GPS clock drivers as 30 more boards will be built.  He also got 12 out of 15 boards that had problems working from when they were stuffed.

• Put ASC WFS I&Q phase adjusts back into the ASC front end code. Code also modified such that offset added first, then phase adjust, then gains applied.
• Tried to track down why one bit in LHO2k Y mid station ISC crate xycom board would not set. I could not find the problem here in our test setup. Sent code to LHO with added diagnostics and now it seems to work ok there. ???
• Starting to incorporate CDS standard digital filter into ASC code. We will start with the LHO2k software, as that system seems to be first to use all WFS. Along those lines, request has been made to get WFS5 working.
• Request made to add common mode software to LHO4k LSC system; in progress.

EO Shutter Controller

Antialiasing Filter Chassis

Seismic Signal Processor

40 Meter Interferometer (Weinstein)

• PSL (Abbott, Ugolini, Vass, Smith, King):
• Steve Vass is flowing N2 into the Lightwave MOPA box (at a rate of one bottle / 5 days). The signals from the two internal monitoring photodiodes (126MOPA_126MON for the NPRO and 126MOPA_AMPMON for the MOPA beam) fell steadily over a day or 2, flattening out after a day. The beam power as measured by a power meter external to the Lightwave MOPA box was approximately constant at 10.05 watts. We thus conclude that the two internal monitoring photodiodes are humidity-dependent, and must be kept dry. We will continue to flow N2.
• Dennis and Steve are now rebuilding the beam paths to the PMC and FSS reference cavity, with new mode-matching lenses. With new circularizing lenses in place, the beam profile looks nice and circular. Mike is reviewing the measured beam parameters to see if any (small) changes will be needed to the mode matching.
• Ben will make sure all PSL components are electrically isolated from the table.
• Dennis, Steve, and Ben plan to make the remaining changes to the PSL table (new FSS pickoff, new mode matching, new location for beam diagnositcs, etc) early next week, then re-commission the FSS and PMC loops and beam diagnostics.
• Ben fixed the malfunction in the PSL enclosure interlock; we are now again enabling the PSL-Enclosure-Interlock routinely.
• Rich Abbott will come by in the next couple of days to help us commission the PSL reference cavity heating system.
• Steve is ordering a Coherent LaserCam CCD beam profiler and a new BeamScan (since the optics lab keeps needing to borrow ours).
• Suspensions (Romie):
• Bartie will be cleaning and baking the 40m TM mech. parts in the following weeks. He should have the alum. load completed by the end of February and the stainless load completed by the first week of March. One more load will be needed after that.
• Helena and I will start cleaning and air baking fixtures next month. I'm coordinating with Betsy, who'll be coming here to assemble three small suspensions around April 1st. She is preparing a box of parts to ship prior to her departure to help with this work.
• The TM gluing fixture will not need to be reworked. The side osem plates' mounting holes can accomodate the magnets' positioning due to the thinner ITMs.
• Todd is working on osems. He will send them to Bartie for cleaning and baking the last week of March.
• The air-bake oven needed by Helena has arrived; Bob Taylor will install it in the South Annex.
• A stand-alone suspension controller is being shipped from LHO by Richard McCarthy next week. Thanks, Richard!
• Suspension controllers (Ben Abbott, Jay Heefner):
• Bob Taylor continues to assemble the two digital suspension controller cross connects.
• Most of the needed electronics for the suspension controllers and mode cleaner LSC/ASC controls are in hand. In fact, most are in place, in the racks.
• Jay continues to work on the timing, RF distribution, and reflective memory layout for the suspension controllers and MC controls.
• Optical layout (Smith):
• IO PERISCOPE: The detailed parts drawings were completed and have been sent to a vendor for quotes.
• PARTS ORDER: All the IO, IMC_R and IMC_T parts have been received from New Focus and CVI. The machined parts from ASCO are in process.
• Mike is studying the feasibility of combining the AP1 and AP2 beam sensing trains onto one table at the vertex. This is better, both from optical and electronics viewpoints. Can it all fit on one 4'x6' table?
• South Annex Bake oven chambers (Vass, Taylor, Cardenas):
• Bob has cleaned the 8 cable assemblies, 30 teflon seals, 30 viton "O" rings. They are in the process of being baked in ovens B and D. They should be done by Monday.
• Bake oven E, New large bake oven is completely assembled (RGA head, Gas Calibrator, plumbing and turbo pump attached, fully covered with heat insulation ) waiting on the new oil free scroll pump station to be attached. he scroll pump was shipped yesterday 02-19 and should be here in the next few days.
• Bake oven F, new large bake oven, assembly preparation is in waiting for parts.
• New Air Bake Oven arrived. Bob and Lee will install it.
• Facilities (Vass, Jones, Smith, AJW):
• In vacuum suspension cables: Etzel's lab should be done by the end of this week with the remaining 27 cables needed for the main IFO (the 8 cables required for the three MC suspensions are in hand and being baked by Bob Taylor).
• Baked Fluorel parts for in-vacuum cable clamps have been boiled in de-ionized water by Walker & Sons; they were shipped back to us on Wednesday.
• Bartie at LHO should be finished with clean/bake of feedthrough flanges, cable clamps, optical port flanges & windows, hardware, by the end of the month.
• Larry continues to work on the design of ISC table enclosures and beam tubes.
• Dennis and Eric Lin have wired up the 2 of the 4 STACIS controllers and they are now being read out and displayed through EPICS. The 3rd has a malfunctioning controller. The 4th awaits a 160' cable; Wilson house is expecting a new spool soon.
• Dennis has made medm and dataviewer work on the operator workstation, op140m. Previously, it was only working on the frame builder, fb40m.
• Caltech HVAC experts met again with Steve, and promise to have a plan and an estimate for reducing particulate content in the IFO hall, by the end of the month. It looks like it will be expensive: at least $50K.
• Alarms and lights were installed on the 2 IFO hall end doors. They do not yet hook up to Caltech security.
• We continue to shoot for installing the 2 remaining seismic stacks, mode cleaner tube extension, all in-vacuum cables, clamps, feedthroughs, optical ports, etc, in March.

Thermal Noise Interferometer (Libbrecht)

no report

LASTI (Zucker)

LASTI (MacInnis, Mason, Mittleman, Ottaway, Rollins, Shoemaker, Zucker)
=======================================================================
 

VACUUM ENVELOPE:
We're making more sense of our rate of rise data and air
signature after a tutorial
by John Worden. The good news is that, with the
right interpretation, our turbopump behaves sensibly. Some not so good
news is that our RGA's electron multiplier is shot, perhaps due
to extended storage at atmospheric pressure before installation.
We're able to do what we need to do right now in its Faraday mode and will
pull the multiplier for refurbishment at the next maintenace cycle.
 

EXTERNAL PRE-ISOLATORS:
 

Pier reactance test-
 

We rigged two BSC piers with a shaker and accelerometers and gently lifted
the BSC stack load off one corner at a time using our crane.  This
was done to measure their
resonant reactances (design input for the isolator
control laws). A previous measurement in October
had turned up unexpected low-frequency resonances that didn't match models and
would have been difficult to design around. It also raised the possibility
that the lab foundation at MIT was excessively compliant.
The repeat test showed no such
complications; the pier responds as a simple cantilever with about
the calculated stiffness, implying a firm connection to a stiff floor. A
static deflection test using a dynamometer and dial indicators added
confirmation. Ken made a finite element model which gets close to the
measured frequencies and compliance value by assuming an infinitely stiff
floor attachment.
 

There are several theories regarding why the prior measurement failed, but
it is suspicious that the pier grout had only been poured a week or so prior
to the first test.  It may have still been "green," softening the effective
attachment.
 

Pre-isolator assembly-
 

The design modifications from the pre-isolator summit have been
completed and half the detail fabrication drawings have been updated.
 

A problem came up with the fabricator building the springs for us. The
10 springs which were built have sharp radiuses in a critical area which
results in a high stress concentration. In addition the supplier is
having trouble with consistency. We have started looking for additional
suppliers and looking at a design of a "machined" spring.
 

CDS/DAQ/GDS:
No problems to report.
 

PSL:
Working on debugging our new FSS servo.  Bandwidth has not yet
reached design values; Dave and Jamie are tracking down delays
in the system.  Careful measurements of the photodiode, PMC
and EOM "intrinsic" bandwidths are ongoing.
 

Data Analysis and Computing (Lazzarini)

Simulation and Modeling (Bhawal)
Weekly Physics meeting
-----------------------
Erika D'Ambrosio gave a talk on Optics and perturbation theory focussing on the
characteristics of the eigenmodes of a composite system when the perturbations
conserve energy and when they do not (details in http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~e2e).
Virginio reported a bug in MSE code.
Biplab explained some tests to understand relationship between mode mismatch at mirrors
and the difference in gouy phase between a matched and a mismatched beam inside a cavity.

LIGO I simulation system
--------------------------
(Matt) I've been testing the LOS sub-system. LSC sub-system testing is next.

Mode mismatch
---------------
(Biplab) This is related to our study of transition of LIGO from cold to hot state and
how much change in mirror position there should be for the changing level of mismatch:
Included the difference in gouy phase between a matched and a mismatched beam
as a phase-offset in propagators inside a 2-mirror cavity (as a setting in box file;
This phase is not included in code) and tested its relation with the phases acquired
due to mismatch by various modes on reflections at mirrors. Found that these two kinds
of phases cancel each other even for large mismatch leaving the cavity length resonant
for its TEM00.
[Studied the cases of both the W2K arm cavity and a simpler (flat ITM) Virgo arm cavity.
  The conclusion remains valid not only for the actual finesse of LIGO-arm but also for
  much higher finesse when many more reflections occur]

Code development and maintenance
---------------------------------
(Matt) I spent, and continue to spend, time testing the various simulation tools
(modeler, adlib, and alfi) in an unforgiving user environment.

(Biplab) Detected an unnecessary conditional statement in mirror module which was
not allowing mismatch calculation for flat-flat mirrors. Removed that.

Alfi
----
(Bruce)
- Implemented new bookkeeping event methodology in Alfi5.
- Cleaning up port positioning problems in edit windows.

(Melody)
- Addressed problem reports for the alpha version of alfi5.

LIGO Data Analysis System

Software Systems (Blackburn)

We have now fully implemented support for the linked list structure of the
FrHistory and FrDetector structures of the frame that were implemented in
the frameCPP I/O library last week into the frameAPI.

We are working to improve the memory usage of the frameAPI when resampling
of data is requested in this API (instead of the dataConditionAPI). We
have already improved the memory usage of the dataConditionAPI by about
25% through similar changes to the TCL layer.

The new diskCacheAPI is in the shakedown phase now. It is marginally
functional, though daily problems show up as we test for backwards
compatibility with the functionality.

The requested support for FrDetector data objects has been added to
the frameAPI and the wrapperAPI. The next major area for code rework
to support it is in the dataConditionAPI. Because of the complex
relationship of detector geometry to channel data, this is requiring
a rework of the internal call chain code. This is the code that
houses the interpreted language in the dataCondtionAPI.

The new resampling library has been fully integrated into both the
frameAPI and the dataConditionAPI, replacing the previous code that
was found in the dataConditionAPI. Testing has begun and only slight
numerical errors between the Sun and Linux platforms exist due to
hardware differences in the handling of floating point computation
between the two hardware platforms.

The core file management code in the controlMonitor had a bug in it
which prevented it from properly notifying responsible individuals
when an LDAS API dropped core. This has been fixed and we are now
being notified if any LDAS component aborts.

Philip Charlton is attending the GEO meeting in Germany as a
representive from LDAS.

Peter Shawhan has enhanced the "getMeta" utility in LIGOtools to be
able to retrieve an arbitrary number of database table rows,
circumventing the 10000-row limit nominally imposed by LDAS by
retrieving the data in blocks and concatenating it.

With members of the LSC, we have been discussing the creation of two
new database tables to record summary information about search jobs
running within LDAS.

Lazzarini and Benoit Mours took advantage of Benoit's visit to the US to complete the final draft for Revision E of the Frame Format specification.
The large number of changes included in this revision were discussed priori to re-writing the specification in both the the LSC SW Configuration Control Board and its Virgo counterpart. The changes support, e.g., the ability to merge multiple detectors from different geographic sites into a single frame, improved detector geometry to support bars, improved definition of a data QA word for each detector within the frame.

Hardware Systems (Anderson)
Caltech
-------
(Dan Kozak)

* Did some HPSS migration from 3590s to 9940s and got started on Redwood
  -> 9940 copies.

* Fixed various breakages in HPSS (lots of DCE problems this week, for
  some reason).

* The Ultra 10 (with the LIGO supplied memory) crashed again.  Now
  waiting on StorageTek to make good on coming up with a replacement
  machine.

* Mostly worked on setting up the LIGO SAN testbed in Booth.  Should be
  done later today.
 

(Al Wilson)

* Contacted Sun for a FRU on the Sun V880. They need to upgrade the power
  supplies. All 6 machines at Caltech will be done.

* Rebuilt m90 with redhat 7.1

* completing file list for tripwire. Will also create a subset for desktop
  machines.

* After the machine swap(see Stuart's entry) did some tweaks to big brother.
  This will be ready for general release for LDAS site by next weeks end. Get
  your request in soon.
 

(Stuart Anderson)

* Upgraded the main LDAS software server from an E220R to an E450.

* Finished integrating the new SunFire V880 and T3 unit at MIT into
  the ldas-mit system, where it is now running the frameAPI.

* Started integrating the new SunFire V880's in ldas-archive, ldas-lho,
  and ldas-llo. Only the 3 V880 servers for ldas-cit remain to be integrated.
 

MIT
---
(Keith Bayer)

* Contacted Sun regarding power supplies.

* Rebuild SF880.

* Mirrored root with DiskSuite.

* Put several Hanford E7 data tapes onto E450.
 
 

Livingston
----------
(Igor Yakushin)

* Configured a test federated database 'sample1' on sunbox1 that uses
  tables from metaserver's 'LDAS_TST', 'LLO_1', 'LLO_2' database, from
  linuxbox1's 'sample' and from local 'sample' database. Tested that one
  can really execute joins on tables from different databases, create
  views that are union of similar tables from different local or remote
  databases.

* Helped Erik to figure out how to extract data from metadatabase using a
  script instead of guild (Erik was unhappy that guild has 10000 row
  restriction, he wanted to get all the data for E7 from some tables).

* Read first 8 chapters from 'Fundamentals of interferometric
  gravitational wave detectors' by Peter Saulson.
 

Hanford
-------
(Greg Mendell)

* Directories and permissions were set up to allow the writing of an E7
  RDS data set.

* Sun was contacted about a problem reported by Sun's sale representative
  with the power supplies in SunFire 880s.  A Sun engineer inspected the
  LDAS SunFire 880 at LHO on Wed Feb 20, and found it does need
  replacement parts. The parts are on back order.  In the meantime, I am
  told that it is safe to use this server (nothing will be damaged, no
  safety issues are involved). The recalled part (a DC-DC power converter)
  may cause the server to reboot unexpectedly, however.

Data Analysis Activities (Lazzarini)
Mendell:
1) Scripts were started last Friday which drive knownpulsardemod dso
jobs in LDAS to produces SFTs at LHO and LLO.  The production of SFTs is
the first step for several of the analysis  conducted by the Periodic
Upper Limits Group.  At LHO, 247 of 249 jobs ran successfully on the
LDAS system.  However, at LLO, memory problems occurred which caused the
frameAPI to fail. This problem is currently being debugged. Errors were
also reported to occur in the clean_locks files used to generate the
quality channel. Once these error and bugs are corrected, the scripts
will be restarted.

2) Attended the PULG telecon on Thu Feb 14 and updated the group on SFT
production. Made sample SFTs available with the AEI group, and discussed
issues associated with the meta data and format of the SFTs. One hurdle
to overcome is that, with the current format, it will take AEI 19 days
to ftp SFTs to their site.  We also discussed independent ways to check
the validity of the SFTs.

Scientific activities (Shawhan)

Worked on characterizing the effect of non-gaussian noise on different
methods of selecting inspiral event candidates using data from multiple
detectors (basicially, coincidence vs. coherent analysis).

Checked RDS (reduced data set) frame files, produced by I. Leonor, for
consistency with the raw frame files.

Brainstormed about a "job sequencer" to coordinate the execution of
LDAS jobs at the observatory sites, which has been identified as being
needed for future on-line running.

Restored access to old engineering-run data in the HPSS archive using
the 'getFrames' utility.  (Data from the most recent engineering runs
is still not retrievable from HPSS using 'getFrames', but it IS
retrievable from the observatory sites using 'getFrames'.)

General Computing (Wallace)
MIT:
(Keith)
-A couple more MU6 upgrades performed on Sun machines
-Setup conference room computer with VRVS video
-Investigated X resolution settings on Solaris for use with a small LCD
monitor for LASTI

Livingston:
(Shannon)
-The Firewall is installed and going through configuration changes.
-Working on some of the logistics for the LSC conference.
-Working out some IP issues which will include some DNS changes for next week.
-LSU is trying to debug some T1 problems between LSU and the Observatory.
 

Hanford:
(Christine)
- Spent most of this week re-building/recovering a guest PC that had all
the Windows 98 system files and all the driver files wiped out.  Don't
know for sure how it happened.  It appears to have been caused by
"helpful" users trying to fix some other problem.
- Contacted Criselda about a problem with the pcard software we have on
site not installing properly due to missing files.
- Created a couple of new user accounts.
- Tracked several orders that are overdue.
- Provided user support for user's printer problems, remote login
problems, put a user's laptop on the wireless network, because of the
guest computer crash setup the old photoreader again, and dealt with the
pcard installation problems.
 

CIT:
(Mike)
-Rebuilt Fred Mann's computer.
-Replaced Fabio's monitor.
-Ran a security audit on a few PC users. I am still waiting on the results.
-Mohana,
-Mohana's Computer was having problems reading CD's; I checked the settings and made
some adjustments but no luck. I ended up replacing this with a new CDROM. Also, had
to clean out the cpu fan, it was over heating and causing some problems.
-Did some more work on the original Amaldi server but didn't have the time to finish
it up. Elba website is still running on a temp server.
-Flavio Nocera's PC was corrupted I had to reload OS and all General Computing
software.
-We received two new PC's that I checked out to make sure they were what we
ordered.
-I upgraded multiple Solid Works installations to Solid Works Plus.
-Started to create updated ghost backups of all NTSRV's, and then will
start to tighten up security permissions on shares and stopping processes
that do not need to be running; this is to prevent vulnerability to our
servers from unknown users such as hackers.

(Bruce Sears)
* (BS) Gnats maintenance:                (1.0 day)
    - Ilog upgrade.  Added UTC time stamps and a few minor features.

(Lisa)
- Worked out a plan on how best to improve our ssh setup.  I expect to have that
in place in the next couple of days.
- Peter king's workstation electra had a bad hard disk.  I replaced electra with
mira.  I spent 2 days trying to recover the files off the bad hard disk.  I
recovered about 50%. Peter had a full backup of all his data files, so that 50% loss
is merely inconvenient.
- The backup system had a glitch over the long weekend.  That's now back on
track.

(Veronica)
- LIGO website: updated MOUs/reports, Employment, LSC March registration
form, LIGO 2; made changes to roster, Student Programs. Posted updates on
Elba 2002 GWADW website. Worked with Rita and Irena on tracking down an
older version of an LSC Progress Report. The LSC database needs to be
changed to better handle multiple versions of the same documents.
- CaJAGWR: Compressed and posted the video of Sterl Phinney's talk last
week. Posted updates to the seminars and directory roster pages.

(Larry)
-Made the changes on the General Computing Usage Policy. It has been approved by
Albert and will be going by Gary for final approval and then on through the
signature cycle. Along the same line Ed C. has been asked to put labels on the
computing equipment informing users that they should not have any expectation of
privacy when using LIGO computing resources.
-Worked out more procurement issues. Dell is having a hard time delivering things on
schedule. Worked out a couple more issues with Foundry and it looks like things
should be finalized with them in the next week or so.
The SUN orders are placed and working on some deals with them to get extra discounts
on future purchases.
-Minor changes on the web page for the LSC and roster.
-Worked a couple of network issues. Most dealing with the new installation of fiber
and related equipment. Things should be finished by the first of next week.
-Talked with NoaNet and they still have a few things to work out before meeting with
us.
-Worked with Lisa and others on the announcement of LIGO CIT no longer supporting
Cadence for the Campus. Tony Ruyter is working on the Campus support. The LIGO
licensing should be good until the end of June.
-Worked on some of the logistics for the LSC conference that is to be held at the
Livingston Observatory.
-Did a little more work on the mail server.
 

LIGO II/Advanced R&D (Sanders)

From Janeen Romie:

AdLIGO Suspensions
Worked with Thomas on suspension costs.

From Peter King:

AdLIGO PSL
Paul Russell has finished fabricating the wiring harness. It has
been buzzed out and checked.
 

From: ctorrie <ctorrie@ligo.caltech.edu>

Prototype quadruple pendulum, MIT
(Norna Robertson, Mark Barton and Rich Mittleman)

Early results indicate that the all of the modes are damping very well in the longitudinal direction but at least one of the modes in pitch is not damping.
I believe this is due to the fact that the "d's", the break off position of the wires wrt the centre of mass, are not the 1mm we would like them to be. Using the MATLAB model I have been able to show that with increased values of d the pitch mode is not damped as well as it should be.

There are several reasons for this:
1) The upper masses had to be adjusted as in scaling the design from the one used in GEO I did not made stiff enough and with the help of Ken Mason we had to add extra mass in the form of stiffening bars.
2) Extra mass has been added to one of the upper masses
3) As a result of point 1 and also partly due to the blade design, the tips of the blades are not in the position we require.*

(*At the time of installation I did not believe that the size of "d" would be a big factor in affecting the pitch frequency. This feeling was from my experience in hanging GEO suspensions.
However, with 2 wires to one blade the spring constant,k in pitch is to first order the k of the wire, therefore the terms in the equations of motion associated with "d" become more significant than they were with 1 wire to 1 blade.)

As of yesterday afternoon I have data from Rich at MIT that suggests that this in fact the case. I am now working on adjusting the position of the "d's" wrt the centre of mass. I hope the adjustment should not be too difficult due to the modularity of the masses. The plan is to remove mass from the final stage and therefore reduce the size of the d's on the upper stages by changing the position of the tips of the blades. Mike Plissi and others at GEO are also helping with input at this stage.
 
 

Suspensions
 

Janeen and I have started to re-organise our area in the high bay. This will include the installation of 2  optical tables, a hydraulic crane and other fixtures.
 

Janeen checked the set of drawings I created  for a planned single pendulum experiment. Both of us have been using the drawing section in SOLIDWOKS to learn how to add the various parts that are required for a LIGO engineering drawing.
 

Janeen and I have begun to investigate the benefits of using ANSUS or COSMOS for FEA with SOLIDWORKS. We should be receiving a free trial for COSMOS in the next few days and Janeen has arranged a demo for us on ANSUS with SOLIDWORKS.
 

From: Helena Armandula <ahelena@ligo.caltech.edu>

Advanced LIGO Coatings:
Four "Q" measured substrates, received from Glasgow, Stanford and MIT were sent to MLD to be coated with Ta2O5 / Al2O3.

Received from MLD 9 coated substrates, 1"dia., coated with ZrO2 / SiO2.
These parts were sent to Stanford for absorption measurements.

Advanced LIGO SUS
Identified a new glass polisher, Valley Design, in Santa Cruz, CA
Valley Design can polish the large heavy glass masses. They are working on a quote.
 

From Dave Reitze
Minutes of the Core Optics Subgroup, 2/14/02
9 am PST US/Europe meeting
UF: David R.
CIT: GariLynn, Helena, Gary, Ricardo
MIT: Gregg, David S., Peter F.
Glasgow: Jim, Sheila, Peter S.
Stanford: Roger, Sheila, Vlad, Norna,
1) Coating Status (Helena)
- Some questions have arisen about the processing (high temperature baking) of some of the
optics that were coated for Q testing at MIT. Helena is following up with Jean Marie
Mackowski (JMM).
- JMM reports that they have seen that the coating characteristics depend on the initial conditions
(polishing) of the substrate. They notice changes in coating absorption; not yet sure if
mechanical Q is affected in any way.
- MLD is currently working on a Ta2O5 / Al2O3 coating run.
- CIT has developed a prototype ergonomic arm for lifting large optics.
2) Polishing Status (Gari)
- Goodrich has finished the compensating polish on the 25 cm sapphire substrate. They achieved
a wavefront of ~ 14 nm RMS measured in single pass. This exceeds the required specification of
20 nm, but doesn’t meet the goal of 10 nm. They claim that the process is repeatable and
controllable. Data is being sent to CIT.
- CSIRO has finished their feasibilities studies of different spot polishing methods for sapphire.
Of the three methods, ion beam etching works the best. They demonstrated a 1 cm profile and
can get to 5 mm. Compensating polishing also worked well. Fluid polishing gave too low a
material removal rate to be useful.
- Peter and GariLynn visited Crystal Systems (CSI) last month. CSI produced a 15 inch diameter
boule (m-axis), but it will be difficult to core out substrates with the desired AdL thickness. CSI
is asking LIGO to think about changing the aspect ratio of the substrates…
3) Sapphire Absorption (Roger)
- The final chapter in the continuing saga of the Stanford 1600 deg. furnace: After numerous
problems over the past few months, the furnace is finally operational.
- the 1400 deg. furnace is baking some of the CSI windows for comparative absorption studies.
Some discussion is taking place with CSI concerning confusing data about surface aborption
caused by different surface preparation results. Nevertheless, Stanford reports a 10 ppm
reduction in the center of the windows (from 65 to 55 ppm) after baking for 200 hrs. Some
questions arose about the feasibility of doing large components; as of now, Stanford is limited by
the diameter of the alumina tube in the oven. It should be possible to do 3” x 1” pieces with
minimal modifications, though. Also, at 1400, no evidence of surface deformation is seen. This
will be checked again at 1600 deg.
- Vlad is working on fused silica and Nb2O5 / SiO2 coatings. He is still working on getting a
good calibration for fused silica. Also, sees anomalously large absorption in the Nb coatings, 40-60
ppm. Helena is going to send a tantalum coated piece (4 ppm absorption) for comparison.
Addendum from Roger Route, 2/19: The initial estimate of the optical loss in the Ta2O5/SiO2
coating contained a computational error which made the apparent optical loss significantly
higher than it really is. The correct value is on the order of a ppm. We are in the process of
refining the calibration and will report the results at the next COWG telecon.
4) Q measurements (Sheila, Gregg)
- Glasgow has measured a the Q of a number of different fused silica coated Ta2O5 / SiO2
samples:
- annealed substrates
- 2 layer sample: lambda /4 Ta2O5 , lambda /4 SiO2
- 30 layer sample: lambda /4 Ta2O5 , lambda /4 SiO2
- 30 layer sample: lambda /8 Ta2O5 , lambda /8 SiO2
5 modes measured in all samples; measurements also made before coating. The data analysis
subtracts the intrinsic loss, however, the annealing changes the intrinsic loss, so some care must
be taken to properly extract the coating loss. The observations:
- annealing increases the Q of the C4 (butterfly) mode of the optics, but reduces
(roughly equally?) the Q of the fundamental mode. In order to unfold this,
details about how the annealing was done are needed. In particular, how was
the optic held during heating?
- The 30 layer piece had a loss of 2.5(+/- 0.4) x 10 -4 , larger then the 2 layer
piece (??).
- The 60 layer piece showed a loss of 3.0(+/- 0.3) x 10 -4 , roughly equivalent to
the 30 layer case.
- A coated sapphire mass has also been measured (this mass had coating spilling over to the
barrel). Again, 5 modes were measured before and after coating. A (large) coating loss of 9 x
10 -4 was measured. Again, anomalous behavior in the different modes is seen.
- MIT and Syracuse have measured 2 layer and 30 layer samples. They find similar behavior as
reported by Glasgow, but some strange behavior is also seen. MIT and Syracuse see large
differences in the butterfly modes. Some discussion of the effects of annealing on the welds that
are used to support the sample took place. MIT also looked at a 30 layer sample of 3lambda/4 Ta2O5 /
lambda /4 SiO2. They see a slight drop in Q as compared with the matched layer sample, indicating that
the Ta layer may be more lossy.
5) Wrap up, upcoming deadlines
- None, per se.
5:30 pm PST Telecon
UF: Davd
UWA: David B., Ju Li
Gingin: Zhou, Yonglan
Adelaide: Peter V.
- UWA: A report on Gingin: preliminary results on test mass suspension controllers have been
achieved. Using electrostatic comb capacitors as actuators, tests on the angular DOFs were
performed using Labview-based software.
- Adelaide: The optical configuration for the Gingin High Power Facility has been specified. A
meeting of the Gingin Advisory Committee (scheduled for next week) will go over the plans.
Thermal loading calculations using Melody have been performed on the proposed configuration
to examine thermal loading issues. A Hartmann wavefront sensor is under development for in
situ measurement of thermal distortions.

For additional information about this report, contact sanders@ligo.caltech.edu